


The Ice Hydra Incident

by StariWolfe



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, it's like a tiny bit at the end, there's honestly not much of the relationship bit, this is more for the adventure of the dumbass crew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 18:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18036287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StariWolfe/pseuds/StariWolfe
Summary: The treasure loving commander and her motley crew infiltrate the Whispering Grottos and get into some multi-headed trouble.





	The Ice Hydra Incident

**Author's Note:**

> In my last story, I mentioned Altair and Vesper getting into some trouble with fire hydras in the crystal desert. Well, they were actually ice hydras and I totally forgot. Anyway, the character pictures are at https://nocte-argentea.tumblr.com/characters if you want to see them, along with brief descriptions of the characters. All of the characters mentioned are my Guild Wars 2 characters, with the exception of Lemon Bae, who belongs to my friend EchoBear.

The Crystal Desert was boiling as always. The air shimmered as it rose from the desert sands, creating dancing mirages upon the dunes. Within the Elon Riverlands, the air closer to the Elon River was granted a slight reprieve from the sweltering temperatures, and many creatures flocked to the river side to drink, swim, and rest from the heat. 

One of these creatures included a young sylvari, who ran full speed from the top of a ledge and jumped into the water with a joyous cry, shattering any tranquility that may have existed prior.

“Lemon! C’mon, we don’t have time to play in the water, mate!” A voice shouted from a nearby bush. Pushing her way through the foliage, the former human Pact commander, Vesper Aequorea, came to stand at the side of the river, followed by two more sylvari and a norn.

“But Vesper, it’s hot! Can’t I swim for just a little longer?” Lemon, the bright yellow sylvari who had jumped into the river, whined. Lemon, being the youngest of the group due to her awakening 3 years ago, had never been to the desert before, so it had been a slight shock to her that the desert was this hot. 

“Vesper is right. Lemon. We need to keep moving to reach the grottos, and swimming would only attract unwanted attention.” Luna, one of the other sylvari, cautioned. In all honesty, she had no earthly idea how Lemon was even swimming in that armor. Revenant armor is certainly not light, nor quiet. The fact that she didn’t sink to the bottom was astounding. Lemon was just an enigma to the deadeye as a whole.

“Exactly. From what Vess told us, the place is rife with corsairs and hydras, of all things. We don’t need to bring any attention to ourselves.” The third sylvari, and only man of the group, Altair, piped up. The spellbreaker was not incredibly keen on going into the grottos in the first place, but he knew if he’d let Vesper go alone, she’d end up badly injured or worse. And she was incredibly interested in whatever treasure was supposedly there, which meant she’d stop at nothing to find it.

“Oh alright, fine. But after we do whatever we’re doing, you owe me a swimming break!” Lemon begrudgingly pulled herself from the water, thoroughly soaked and cooled off a few degrees, at least. 

“I mean, none of you have to come. Honestly, it might be safer for me to do this one alone. I’m an expert in stealth and infiltration, so all of you could just stay here and swim with Lemon” Vesper stated. She knew the risks of trying to get this treasure, and she didn’t want to drag her friends into it. They had other plans, apparently, and absolutely insisted on coming with her.

“And then you’d get your ass captured or killed and we’d have to rescue you or grieve for you. We know you well enough, Vesper.” Nocte, the norn of the group, retorted at her much shorter friend. Nocte knew Vesper the best out of any of the group, save for possibly Altair, since she and Vesper had known each other for years because of their old pirate crew, before Luna joined them. And Nocte knew all too well about what dumbassery her friend could get up to.

“Nocte, do you truly not trust me that much?”

“Yup. You’ve been giving us all grey hairs when you go off on your own.”

“Nonsense! You and Altair have the same white hair that you’ve always had.”

“Before we get too in depth about hair colors,” Altair butted in, ready to get their endeavor over with, “shouldn’t we get to the grottos and find this cache Vess is looking for?”

“A wonderful idea! See? Altair gets me, Noct!” Vesper, eager to get started searching, started along the rest of the way, and the others followed suit. Along the river shore was their destination, the Whispering Grottos. According to Vesper’s contact, there was supposedly an old corsair cache hidden within that contained a large amount of gold, jewels, and various treasures, as well as some hard to come by crafting materials. Though, being honest with herself, Vesper was more interested in the gold and jewels. Once a pirate, always a pirate, she supposed. After all, she could keep all of Dragon’s Watch fed for at least two months on the gold that was rumored to be in this cache. Not to mention, any extra could be used buy more materials that she needed for Nevermore. That staff was proving to be so hard to get, but it’s going to be so, so worth it when she finally crafts it…

“So, where exactly in the grottos is this treasure supposed to be, Vesper?” Luna piped up, startling Vesper out of her thoughts. She must have been really deep in her thoughts, because they’d already made it to the entrance of the grottos. She could see the farmlands of the river lands in the distance. Had they actually been walking that long? Or were they closer than she thought when they started walking?

“Oh, it’s supposed to be in a place called Dragoon’s Hearth, deep within the caves. If I’m remembering correctly, it’s supposed to be north of this entrance and somewhat in the center of the caves. My contact said we’d know it when we’d seen it.”

“I know one thing I’d know when I saw it. Look at this.” Nocte spoke quietly, looking within the waters of the river. A large footprint of a supposedly large creature could be seen under the surface. Nocte gave a quick whistle, and her pet owl, Soren, flew down and landed on her shoulder, holding in his talons what looked to be a large scale of some sort.

“What’s that Nocte? It’s rather pretty to look at!” Lemon said, staring wide-eyed at the scale.

“This is almost definitely a hydra scale. An ice hydra, specifically. That footprint in the water was made by a hydra too most likely. Something’s bothering me, though.” Nocte paused briefly, and drew the others’ attention to the footprint in the water. “That footprint is way bigger than whatever hydra shed this scale.”

“That’s…concerning to say the least. Vesper, is this really worth it?” Altair was no coward, but he knew that the five of them wouldn’t walk away from whatever made that mark without serious injuries. He’d prefer for them to fight battles that they could walk away from without broken bones.

“If as much gold is in this cache as I’ve been led to believe, yes. We could feed the guild for months. Plus, there’s supposedly even more stuff we can sell and incredibly rare crafting materials.” She paused to look her small party. “…but I will admit that some of it is for my own reasons. I’d rather you all not get hurt for my own selfish gain. Just stay here, I’ll take care of it.” The daredevil tried to dart into the caverns alone, but someone caught her arm before she was able to actually get anywhere.

“Absolutely not. You’d get yourself killed, or caught, and you know it.” Altair stated, his grip firm and unyielding. “We’re going with you, and that’s final. Plus, how exactly do you plan on taking all of the things you mentioned out of here by yourself? You aren’t the most physically strong person in Tyria.”

“I’m hurt, mate,” Vesper replied with a deadpan expression, “but you’ve got a point, as much as I hate to admit it. Altair, you and Lemon need to stay close to me or Luna, so we can keep you stealthy. Nocte, I’ll assume you’ll be fine?” 

“I can stealth myself, and Soren can scout ahead for us.”

“Excellent. Let’s move. We’re headed north, looking for a large cavern in the center of the grottos.”

Even though all of them were turned invisible by the skills of the two thieves, it was difficult to remain completely unnoticed in the caverns due to the water making splashes as they waded through it. Vesper winced every time she heard the echo of the splashes within the cave. Were there bats in this cave? They’d definitely be able to know they were here by now, maybe they’d even try to attack. They couldn’t find the Dragoon Hearth fast enough, in her opinion. Judging by Altair’s grip on her arm, he agreed with her on that thought.

Fortunately, they stumbled upon the correct cavern much sooner than Vesper thought they would. This had to be the place. It was massive, and held a plethora of nooks and crannies for old corsairs and bandits to hide valuables.

“Looks like we’ve found it. I’m going to look around, can you lot cover me?” Her team nodded, and took up positions at the entrances to the cavern. The commander began to systematically check all of the possible places where the cache could possibly be hidden. A crack in the wall here, some loose dirt on a ledge there, it had to be somewhere in this cavern, right?

“Vess, I’m getting a very strong feeling that you need to hurry.” Nocte called calmly but firmly from her position along the north wall.

“What makes you say?”

“This cavern is covered in those huge tracks we saw earlier, and I’m hearing rumbles from further inside the caves. I’d say we’re on limited time now.”

“Got it. There’s only a few places left, I’ll try and hurry. If we need to come back, we can.” She really needed to pick up the pace now. There was no way she was letting the others down after they’d come this far to support her. She peeked in on one more crack, and saw what looked to be a chest, warped and waterlogged from the waters of the caves.

“I think I’ve found it! Give me a minute to get some of the stuff in this bag here…” She climbed into the crack and opened the chest. That was…a lot of gold. Maybe even more than she thought there’d be. Vesper quickly started scooping some of the gold and materials into her sack, determined to leave with a prize they could all be proud of.

“Vesper, I really hope you’re almost done.” Luna’s voice was shaking a bit, which was really unusual for her. Was something wrong?

“We’re falling back to you. By the Pale Tree, be quick, Vess.” Altair spoke up this time. He sounded confident at first, but judging by the second sentence he was spooked pretty badly.

“Yes, please hurry.” Lemon wore her heart on her sleeve, and was very clearly distressed. Something was definitely not right. Vesper scooped up what was left in the chest into the sack, and began trying to get it out.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on? Here, Altair, Nocte, take this if you can. I’m coming back out.” Pushing the sack through the opening, Vesper handed it to her two stronger companions, and began to work her way out of the crack as well.

“Vesper, just hurry. Get out of there as quickly as you can. We’ve been spotted and it’s a fight I know we can’t win.” Nocte was very, very concerned, and now Vesper was nervous as well. If Nocte was upset then they were in deep trouble. And they’d been spotted? By whom? Corsairs? Bats? Eels?

“Spotted? Oh joy, what are we gonna have to run from this time? A horde of corsairs?” Vesper quipped, trying to keep her cool while working out of the small crack.

“I wish it were that easy.”

Oh. Shit. If Nocte says that she wishes something was that easy, then they were in deep trouble.

“What are we dealing with? I’m almost out of here. Altair, can you give me a hand, please?” She’d gotten part of her coat caught on a jagged rock that jutted out of the wall. As Altair moved to help her, she noticed his hands shaking. This is really bad, isn’t it? Finally, with her coat freed and Altair helping her the rest of the way out, she could finally see what was going on. Once she saw what was crawling towards them, her blood ran cold.

Two normal ice hydras, and one huge ice hydra were coming straight at them, readying their fangs to rip the five adventurers asunder. Looking at them now, Vesper could have sworn she had seen the bigger one on one of the bounty boards.

She blinked.

“Well that’s not ideal. With that said, we’ve got what we’ve come for so let’s book it. Now.”

The water made their escape difficult. With the combination of having to find their way back out, dodging the ice hydra’s attacks, and periodically having to break ice on their bodies, the adventurers nearly didn’t make it out. Vesper tried to keep a positive outlook on the situation.

“These three are rather rude to guests aren’t they? Not even offering us tea, can you imagine?”

“Vesper, now is really NOT the time!” Nocte replied, with the sack slung over her shoulder and Soren flying near her head.

“Oh it’s probably fine.”

“It is very much not fine.”

“Absolutely nothing is fine right now Vess!” Altair yelled, taking a cursory glance over his shoulder at the hydras. From the look Vesper saw on his face, they were getting closer.

They finally had the entrance in sight, and Nocte, Luna, and Lemon made it out and got to safety. As Vesper and Altair were closing in on their freedom, Vesper felt a sharp pain in her leg and fell to the water. Altair stopped his advance, and ran back to help her. Vesper sat up, wondering what in the hell had happened.

One of the hydras had fired ice spikes at them, and one of the spikes had pierced her leg.

She tried to stand, but fell back to the ground in pain. She couldn’t run like this. This was…not the way Vesper was hoping to go out. Eaten by hydras, trying to get funds for her guild and the weapon she wanted. But, looking at the blood coming from the wound, and the hydras closing in, that’s what was going to happen.

“Altair, get out of here! I can’t run like this!”

“What!? I’m not leaving you to be eaten by them!”

“Altair, there’s no way you can help me here, it’d slow us both down! You can’t run if I’m leaning on you’re shoulder, they’d kill both of us!”

“…hold still.”

“Wait, what!?”

Altair put a hand each under Vesper’s knee’s and back, and lifted her into the air.

“I’m stronger than you, remember? Hold on tight, we’re getting out of here.”

With more speed than Vesper thought possible of someone holding another person, Altair sprinted towards the exit, just fast enough to get out of the caverns and away from their oncoming doom.

The two reunited with Nocte, Luna, and Lemon, and the norn got to work on treating Vesper’s wound.

“You realize how lucky you are, right? If not for Altair’s adrenaline rush, you’d be dead right now.” Nocte noted while cleaning and disinfecting the wound. Vesper gasped in pain; this hurt a lot more than she thought it would, now that the adrenaline had worn off and she could actually feel it. “I’m sure you noticed, too, that the big hydra was on one of the bounty boards. That thing was driven crazy by ley line energy, and has become exponentially more powerful because of it. The fact that your wound is all we ended up with is a miracle.”

“Trust me, I’m aware. I’m -ow!- painfully aware. Literally.”

“I should throw you back to the hydras for that pun. But your wound is taken care of for now. We need to talk to Niamh and Morgana to get it treated properly, though. Let’s head back to Amnoon, you can use your staff as a walking stick. I’d thank Altair if I were you, as well.” Nocte stood up, helping Vesper to her feet and passing her staff to her. She, Luna, and Lemon began their way back to the road to Amnoon, leaving Vesper and Altair alone for a moment. The thief turned to her companion.

“Thanks for not leaving me behind, mate. I owe you my life for that.”

“You do, but it’s all right. I’m glad you’re safe, relatively speaking. You know I’d never leave you to die. And to be fair, you’ve saved my life plenty of times now too. Do we even know what our tally is?”

Vesper thought for a quick moment before replying. “I lost count around me saving you around twenty times and you saving me around fifteen times. So in that general area I suppose?” Unbeknownst to the other three party members, Vesper and Altair had been keeping a tally for years of how many times the other had saved them. They lost count a few months ago, but they knew the general gist of what the score was.

“We’ll say I’m at sixteen saves for you then.” Altair said with a smirk, and reached over to ruffle Vesper’s hair.

“Hey! You’re messing up my hair! Cut that out, you pine tree!” Vesper cried as she tried, in vain, to prevent Altair from thoroughly messing up her hair.

“Pine tree? That’s a new one. Anyway, come on, let me help you get to Amnoon. You can repay me for saving you with a drink at the casino with that treasure we got today.” Altair put Vesper’s arm over his shoulders and his arm around her waist, and began to follow the others towards the road.

“You know what? Sure. I need to be drunk off my ass to forget about this day. This was humiliating and I’m ready to be done.” Vesper said. She let a hiss out through gritted teeth. This was a lot more painful than it looked.

“If you’re complaining, I can carry back to town the same way I carried you out of the caves.” Altair replied with a wink. 

“Absolutely not. Neither of us would ever hear the end of it.”

“Alright, you’ve convinced me.” He grabbed Vesper and positioned her in his arms again. “The shit that the others are going to give you will be very entertaining.”

Vesper let out a deep sigh of resignation.

“I wish that the hydras got me instead.”


End file.
